Last group of Rialto Unified students visit Museum of Tolerance

Rialto >> A month after news broke that Rialto Unified middle school students were required to read pages from a Holocaust denial website and argue for or against the existence of the Holocaust, the final group of Rialto Unified students visited Los Angeles’ Museum of Tolerance on Friday.

The school district has reportedly made good on their vow to send all eighth graders to the museum in Century City, which the Rialto Unified school board announced as part of its apology for the assignment at a May 7 emergency board meeting.

“I give high praise to the school district for working diligently to make available to all graduating eighth graders — and that’s well over 1,900 kids — to come to the Museum of Tolerance,” said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the Museum of Tolerance. “This is our busy season for the museum, and we had to make room for these kids, and we were glad to do so.”

The school district sends at least a portion of its eighth graders to the museum each year, but that number was increased after the district became the target of international condemnation after details of the assignment came out.

The April 2014 in-class essay assignment required students to read through “credible articles,” including pages printed off of a Holocaust denial website, and then argue whether or not the Holocaust was “a propaganda tool that was used for political and monetary gain.” The assignment was created by a group of district teachers. District officials insist they received no complaints from students or staff about the assignment.

Over the past few weeks, bus loads of eighth-grade students made their way to the museum, according to district spokeswoman Syeda Jafri.

Friday’s final trip, coming after the the Rialto Unified school year ended earlier this week, included high school student leaders from multiple campuses.

“It was interesting,” said Micah St. Andrew, who graduated on Sunday from Eisenhower High School. “Not your usual museum; definitely life-changing.”

Friday’s visit was St. Andrew’s first to the museum.

“It makes you more open to understanding other people’s beliefs,” he said. St. Andrew plans to study Computer Science at Fresno State in the fall.

Yolanda Magana, who graduated from Rialto High School on Sunday, had visited the museum years ago, as an eighth grader, and pushed for the district’s student leaders to visit this year.

Advertisement

“I think it was more inspiring than (depressing),” said Magana, who plans to study psychology at UCLA this fall.

Part of what both students found to be inspirational was meeting two Holocaust survivors, who had overcome the horrors of their youth to have happy, successful lives.

“These kids also have the opportunity to be in the presence of a survivor themselves,” said Cooper, who saw Friday’s group of Rialto Unified students just prior to their meeting with one Holocaust survivor. “Maybe the most important outcome of all is that they had the opportunity to meet with a survivor. ... We’re glad that we were there for this piece of it.”

Unfortunately, not every Rialto Unified student seemed to grasp the seriousness of what they had come to see:

“There was a very small minority of kids who did not see the exhibition, who did not meet the minimum standards of behavior to be allowed into the museum,” Cooper said.

The students who were not allowed in were the third group from one Rialto Unified school that visited the museum last week. According to Cooper, the students spit, used obscenities and otherwise behaved in ways unacceptable to museum staff.

“We had all the eighth-grade teachers and approximately 2,000 students that went and experienced this educational field trip,” district spokeswoman Syeda Jafri said. Friday was Jafri’s fourth visit to the museum. “A couple of these students’ behavior was extremely inappropriate and we are looking into it.”

The district has sent a letter of apology to the rabbi and the museum, she said.

“The overwhelming majority of the kids who came through had a quality experience,” Cooper said. “I have to give the Rialto school district high marks and high praise.”

About the Author

Beau covers education and politics for The Sun and the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin. Reach the author at Beau.Yarbrough@langnews.com
or follow Beau on Twitter: @lby3.